Dynamics of immobility: Capability conversion among aspiring migrants in Pakistan
| Published date | 01 April 2022 |
| Author | Daniel Karell |
| Date | 01 April 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12866 |
126
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International Migration. 2022;60:126–142.
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
INTRODUCTION
In a time characte rized by both mass migration (de Haas et al. , 2020 [1993]) and “involuntary immobilit y” (Carling,
2002), what are the consequen ces of aspi ring to mi grate internati onally for low- skilled empl oyment, but being
deterred by unantic ipated change s in s tates’ polici es? Recent research ha s drawn attention to the psychologi-
cal, emoti onal, and social c onsequences of involu ntary immobilit y (e.g. Conrad Suso , 2020, Ortiga & Macabasag,
2020), or when individuals desire to migrate but c onstraints on their capabilitie s prevent them fr om doing so
Received: 15 Jul y 2020
|
Revised: 27 Februa ry 2021
|
Accepted: 12 Apri l 2021
DOI: 10.1111/imig.12866
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Dynamics of immobility: Capability conversion
among aspiring migrants in Pakistan
Daniel Karell
© 2021 The Author s. Internationa l Migration © 2021 IOM
Departm ent of Sociology, Yale Unive rsity,
New Haven, CT, USA
Correspondence
Daniel Karel l, Department of S ociology, Yale
Universit y, 439 College Street, N ew Haven,
CT, USA.
Email: daniel.karell@yale.edu
Funding information
Research and E mpirical Analys is of Labor
Migration Pr ogram (Columbia Uni versity)
Abstract
What a re the costs of attempting to migrate i nternation-
ally for work but being deterre d by unexpected changes
in states’ p olicies? Building on recent insights into invol-
untary immobility, I examine immobil ity's financial conse-
quences, including how these consequences vary across
levels of household wealth. D rawing on an original panel
survey of 70 aspiring Pakis tani labour migrants and their
heads of hou sehold, I find that poorer ho useholds mo re
often exp ected to pay to migrate. They also lost the mos t
in financing overse as employment attempts gone awr y. I
additionally use the finding s to specify a dynamic of im-
mobility: “capability conversion”, or the process by which
migrants’ capa bility to migrate at one point in time cra shes
up against un expected constraints , thereby affecting t heir
future capability to migrate. Capability conversion helps
explain how migrator y attempts can lead individuals to be-
coming more “stuck” over time, and , more generally, helps
develop the aspiration- mobility framework for analysing
(im)mobility.
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DYNAMICS OF IMMOBILITY
(Carling, 2002; Schewel, 2019). Building on this work, I examine another dimension of the deterred migration ex-
perience: the financial consequences, including how these consequences vary across households based on their
wealth.
The an alysis of financial con sequences of fers genera l insight into how immobility “ works”. Recognizing the
interdepende ncy betwee n migration and immob ility, migration scholars have been developing a n approach for
better understanding (im)mobility— the aspiration- capability framework framework, (Carling, 2002; Carling &
Schewel, 2018; de Haas, 2014; Schewel, 2019). This framework captures impor tant dynamics of (im)mobility,
such as how peop le transition between phases of movement and “staying p ut”. My ana lysis helps advance the
aspiration- capability framewor k by specifying another d ynamic, what I call “capa bility conversion”.
Capabilit y conversion describes t he process by which the ena ctment of migrants’ c apability to migrate at o ne
point in time can affect their future capab ility to migrate. Put another way— and to preview the empirical analysis—
when a migrant's us age or deployment of her capabil ity to migrate at the start of a migr ation effort interac ts with
the landscape of constr aints on capabilities, the outcome can profo undly shape the migrant's capabilit y to migrate
in the future. Im mobility today can str ucture (im)mobilit y tomorrow (see Ortiga & M acabasag, 2020).
My speci fication of capability co nversion highlight s three of its core mechanics. F irst, how capability t rans-
forms, including w hether it transforms at all, depends on the expectation s and plans within aspiring migrants’
households , as well as the capabilities the household has at the onset of a mi gration attempt. Second, capabil ity
conversion reflec ts the process of putting the cap ability to migrate to use— an activation , but not a full realization,
of th e capabilit y to migrate. F inally, capabil ity conversi on is not indepe ndent of aspirations. Rather, i t unfolds
through aspirations: the crash ing of d eployed capa bility into constraints can affect asp irations, whi ch, in turn,
shapes future c apability.
The ana lysis traces what happens to aspiring labour mig rants in Pakistan whe n their mig ration attempt s go
awry d ue to unex pected chang es in st ate- level policy. I draw on an origina l panel d ataset of 70 individuals: 35
aspiring mi grants attempti ng formal low- skilled labour migr ation from Pak istan to the Gulf Cooperatio n Council
(GCC) st ates— Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab E mirates— and the asp iring mi-
grants’ 35 he ads of households. Soon after data colle ction be gan in early 2017, Saudi Arabia (KSA) sud denly
deported 40,000 Pakistani wo rkers, allegedl y over secur ity concerns. The expulsi ons followed worker protests
against the withholding of their wages after a collaps e in oil pri ces. As a result, t he part icipants in my study
saw their already- initiated migration att empts deterred by KSA’s polic y enactment. Yet, while K SA’s action was
unanticipated , it was not a peculiar occ urrence in the global migration system. St ate- level immigrati on policies
present some of the biggest obstacles to cross- border movement. Consider, for example, the plight of would- be
migrants to the United States sudden ly facing dete rrence after Executive Order 13769, which “provisionally r e-
voked” 60 ,000 visas from citizens of countrie s in the Middle East and Africa in January 2017, or the t hreats to
the visa status of foreign students studying in the United States (Jordan & Hartocollis, 2020). The KSA- Pakistani
case is one of many in wh ich individuals attemp ting to migrate through form al and highly regulated chan nels face
constraint s on capability beca use of changes in states’ poli cies.1.
This article's theoretic al discussion and empirical finding s contribute to the ongoing development of the
aspiration- capability framework for analysing (im)mobilit y (e.g. Conr ad Sus o, 2020; Schewe l, 2019; Ortiga &
Macabasag , 2020). They he lp elaborate th e links betwee n aspiration and capability, illus trating how “t heir inter-
action…[be comes] more complex over time” (Ca rling & Schewel, 2018: 959). It also draws fur ther attention to the
role of preparations, or the incomplete implementation of capabilities to migrate, in situations of immobility (see
Migali & Scipioni, 2019; Tjaden et al., 2018). Namely, the findings indi cate that concrete steps taken in preparation
for migration can inadvertently transform temporary immobility into ex tended immobility. This temporal dimen-
sion of immobility re lates to a third contribution. The co nceptualization of capabil ity conversion provides a mode l
for underst anding how people not only g et “stuck”, but also then become more “stuck”.
The art icle proceeds as follows. I bri efly review the aspiration- capabili ty framework and explain the process
of capabilit y conversion. I th en introduce the case, data, and analytical str ategy. Next, I pr esent the analysis and
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